ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGYBest and Worst Cities for Public Parks
NRDC Switchboard
In Minneapolis, the Trust for Public Land (TPL)'s highest-rated big city for public parks, 95 percent of residents (including roughly the same portion of low-income residents) live within a ten-minute walk of a city park.

ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGYNew England States Move to Increase Hydropower
Boston Globe
Hydropower could play a larger role in New England's energy mix as five of the region's states, including Massachusetts, move to import more of it - most likely from Canada - and at least one has passed a law that could allow electricity from large-scale hydrolectric dams to be classified as green as…

ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGYAmerican West Increasingly Dusty
National Geographic
The American West is becoming an increasingly dusty place: So-called "dust emissions"-including giant dust storms reminiscent of the Dust Bowl era-have increased in the past 17 years, according to a new study.

Jeff Wood, Reconnecting America's New Media Director and Chief Cartographer, collects news stories and blog posts about transit and transit-oriented development from around the country and posts them at TheDirectTransfer.com. Jeff then takes the top 10 articles in each of five categories and sends that out as Other Side of the Tracks email newsletter. The content of that email is then posted here.